Because O'Brien figured out that the Affordable Care Act (known to
conservatives as "Obamacare") would require him to spend money on an
employee health plan that his employees could use to get contraception.
About 30 other parties across the nation did the same thing, too.

Q: So what was O'Brien's problem?

O'Brien is suuuuper Catholic. As in, the firm's main lobby has a
statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and its mission statement includes
the desire "to make our labor a pleasing offering to the Lord...." The
Catholic Church teaches that contraception is wrong. O'Brien didn't want
any of his money to pay for it, even indirectly.

There's a statue like this in the main lobby of O'Brien Industrial Holdings

Q: But wait -- I thought President Obama gave in to pressure on this and granted religious people exemptions?

He did, but O'Brien's company doesn't qualify for the exemptions.

First,
it's not a "religious employer" under the law (even though O'Brien is
really Catholic), because the company is primarily a secular, for-profit
business (it mines, processes and distributes refractory and ceramic
materials, by the way).

Also, it has almost 90 employees. Only companies with fewer than 50 are exempt from the health care law.

Q: Well fine. Why doesn't O'Brien simply refuse to comply with the law?

Because
if he provides a plan that doesn't meet the new health law
requirements, he has to pay a "tax" of 100 bucks per employee, per day.
If he provides no plan at all, he must pay a tax of $2000 per employee
per year.

And that, O'Brien claims in his complaint, forces him into an unacceptable choice:

We Recommend

Judge Jackson's reasoning and argument are excellent. Like many of those who oppose the healthcare law on religous grounds, O'Brien's claim is entirely political, not religious. He doesn't have a right to provide healthcare and then regulate the healthcare decisions of his employees.